In the present day there are different techniques of characterization of materials or surface coatings in ultra-high vacuums that require heating of the sample of material or coating at high temperatures (up to 1200° C.) or cooling at cryogenic temperatures. These applications include probe microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermal desorption spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and others. There are also several technologies in electronics, optoelectronics, nanotechnologies requiring heating or cooling of wafers of electronic materials or other components in their manufacturing process. As an example of these processes we can mention molecular beam epitaxy, dopant diffusion or oxide growth. In the patent EP0325178 the vacuum system consists of two different chambers: the main chamber and the chamber for sample introduction. The sample holder with the integrated heater and the sample installed is transferable from one chamber to another to exchange the samples without breaking the vacuum in the main chamber. However during its operation the heater is situated in the main chamber in the same evacuated volume as the sample or component to be heated. In the device described in patent JP10025570 the heater is located in an additional chamber separated from the main vacuum chamber by a valve. In this way the vacuum in the additional chamber does not break when the main chamber is vented to change the sample. However, when the sample or the component is heated by the heater, the heater is placed in the same evacuated volume as the sample or the component.
In these known devices, the heating or cooling system of the samples or the components fixed on the sample holder is placed in the same volume of the vacuum chamber as the sample itself. When the components of the heater and the bottom parts of the sample holder are heated, they emit the gases adsorbed on their surfaces or dissolved in the volume which produces an increase of the pressure in the vacuum chamber and a change of the composition of the waste gases. On the contrary, when cooled, the surfaces of the cooling system adsorb the gases and vapors in the vacuum chamber, involving the pressure drop, especially of the components of the residual vacuum with high condensing temperature. Therefore, an alteration of the pressure in the vacuum chamber and of the composition of the residual gases may occur as a result of the operation of the heating or cooling system of the sample holder in ultra-high vacuums. This alteration is undesirable in several techniques of characterization of materials and surfaces because it hinders the measurement of the gases that are given off from the sample of material or condense on the surface of the sample. Moreover, the gases given off from the heating system of the sample can contaminate the surface of the sample or the component that is intended to be characterized or modified, or the sensitive surfaces of several devices located in the vacuum chamber. Among the techniques and technologies in which the contamination of ultra-high vacuums with the gases given off from the sample holder can be important are: growth of the coatings by molecular beam epitaxy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, thermal desorption, electron beam induced desorption, ions, radiation or mechanical action, atomic force microscopy, nanotechnologies, etc.